Home & Garden

Each morning at 8 a.m., Jennifer Coburn grabs her coffee and heads for the studio of her Elfin Forest home to begin making magic. Coburn crafts Disney characters into life-size topiaries for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts around the world. Her collaboration with Disney began in 1990 when she was...

One of the most spectacular residential displays of holiday lights in San Diego — Belardo Lights in Tierrasanta — started more than a decade ago out of a father’s desire to connect with his young son who was diagnosed with autism. In 2005, Randy Schimka noticed the tantrums his son Brandon threw...

This year’s Holiday Homes Tour on Sunday, Dec. 4, will feature four Vista residences that have been decorated for the holidays by professional designers. The tour is presented by the Vista Community Clinic and benefits Kare for Kids, a fund dedicated to enhancing pediatric facilities at the clinic....

Roses are coaxed into semi-dormancy when we cut down on fertilizer and water. In December, many gardeners snip fewer roses to bring inside, and instead of deadheading their roses, they pluck off the rose petals . This allows rose hips to form and is another signal to the rose that it is time to...

There’s a story about a famous photographer who was a guest at a dinner party. The host said to him, “Oh, I love your photos! You must have a wonderful camera.” At the end of the dinner as the photographer was thanking his host for her hospitality, he commented, “I loved your pie. You must have...

They are big, elusive and exciting to see, and what is more appropriate as the subject of the November column than the wild turkey? Longtime San Diego birders will tell you that there were no turkeys here until the 1990s when a group of sportsmen teamed up with the California Department of Fish...

Four recent graduates of San Diego Mesa College’s interior design program are already making their mark in the industry. They have won national and regional design awards, and since graduating in May, they all have found work in the interior design field. “They’re excited and ready to go,” said...

If going green in housing is one of your goals, the 2016 Green Homes Tour on Saturday, Nov. 12, will give you loads of ideas. The one-day tour, sponsored by the San Diego Green Building Council, aims to celebrate best practices in green residential design and building. Tour goers have the opportunity...

Call your favorite arborist. Fall and winter are good times to have your trees trimmed, especially if the trees had a late summer growth spurt. Hire only a certified arborist and require the arborist to be on site with the crew while the work is being done. Never allow anyone to top a tree. • For...

More Home & Garden

When it comes to adding color to the garden, people think first about flowers. But flowers are just one of several ways to create a colorful garden. One of the easiest ways is to include colored leaves. Deep green, lime green, silver, blue and burgundy in combination make the garden shine, even...

Old Garden Roses are also known as Antique, Heirloom and Heritage Roses. The American Rose Society (ARS) classifies roses into three main groupings: Species (or wild roses), Old Garden Roses (OGR) and Modern Roses. The ARS definition of an OGR is any class of rose that existed prior to 1867, which...

When you think of the most popular products we enjoy from Italy, olive oil, pasta and wine might leap first to mind, but one of Italy’s major exports to the world is ceramic tile. You might even have some of it in your house. Every year, Cersaie, the Bologna-based Italian tile expo, brings together...

For interior designer Lena Brion, the home she shares with her husband and two sons is a place to relax, be comfortable and enjoy friends and family. The 1,900-square-foot, two-story house in a Vista development has been an ongoing project for Brion since the family moved there 16 years ago. The...

San Diego’s many bays, beaches and lagoons are a birding haven, but the air show put on by feeding terns makes fall and winter an even better time to head for the coastline. Several species of these beautiful birds can be found along our coast, and fall means tern numbers increase with the arrival...

Rammy Cortez was undeterred in his efforts to find urban property to develop in San Diego a few years ago, even though everything available seemed to be small lots and canyons. “Past generations had developed the land, and the property that was available was only for innovative designers,” recalled...

We had a teaser of fall in September before the temperature spiked back up, but it will surely happen this month when we wake up to the cool, first morning of fall. • Fall is planting time in San Diego and all of California. While others wait for spring, we wait for fall, when the soil is warm...

Miniature and miniflora roses are versatile in any garden and can give even a tiny patio the opportunity to become a rose garden. They can be planted in the ground just like any other rose, or they can be grown in containers and window boxes; some even do well in hanging baskets. The one thing...

Home & Garden

As we transport more people and products around the world faster than ever, we are also unintentionally introducing exotic pests. The consequences are long term and often costly. Musseling in Larvae of the invasive fresh water mussel quagga has spread from the Colorado River, where it was detected...

One of San Diego County’s most delightful and colorful birds is the lesser goldfinch. They are highly social little rockets of color that will bring joyful chatter to your backyard bird feeder. While the lesser goldfinch will eat small insets, it prefers seeds and grains and absolutely loves the...

If you aren’t familiar with Serbian cuisine and culture, the 44th annual San Diego Serbian Festival on Saturday, Oct. 1, is a great place to get an introduction. San Diego is home to an estimated 7,500 Serbian-Americans, many of whom are refugees from the 1990s war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The event...

The pick: Mission Hills Heritage Historic Home Tour on Sept. 24 Why it rates: This 12th annual tour sponsored by Mission Hills Heritage (MHH) will feature homes that were built in the Colonial Revival Style in the Mission Hills neighborhood. Six home interiors will be shown on the self-paced tour,...